Second despondent thread of the day: Cuck Fisco

[Elok]

Leaving Lori's free in case he wants to pick it back up. Also to remind everybody that we are, in fact, separate people.

So, I've been studying for Cisco certification since the start of the year. I got straight A's for all four classes, finished my practical examinations first in the class with everything 100% correct every time. I took the actual CCNA test last Monday...and failed by what I calculated as a 1.5 question margin. Okay, no biggie, I just had to study more, right? I spent the whole last week cramming, going through all my textbooks memorizing as much as I could fit in my brain without going crazy, took the test again today.

And failed by a significantly larger margin. Haven't done the math, but probably closer to six questions (out of fifty) this time. The irritating thing is, the questions are so obscure, petty and arbitrary that there's essentially no way to prepare short of memorizing every damn detail precisely, including verbatim memorization of little snippets of information the curriculum presents with too little context to make them meaningful (e.g., almost everything it teaches about IPv6). And even if you do that, you can still fail by parsing an ambiguous question incorrectly.

I'm not inclined to take the test a third time; it costs three hundred bucks each time (they've got a good racket going), and while I've still got savings left, I can't meaningfully prepare in such a way that I can reasonably expect to do any better the next time. A passing grade means getting three-quarters or more of the questions right, and a couple of the questions are not multiple-choice, so basically my best efforts with the parts that were multiple-choice were less than two-thirds effective. Also, I only have until the end of September before the old CCNA test is phased out in favor of an entire new curriculum I haven't been taught. Which, assuming I learn it, will presumptively still require passing an equally unfair and arbitrary test. I know there are people who actually pass that thing, but I can't imagine how. Maybe lucky guesses, or they're just really, really good at memorization? I'd have thought I had a hella good memory for this kind of thing, before this happened.

I don't want to give up--I've invested so much in this--but I'm also aware that that's the logic used by gamblers who go bust, that they're too far in the hole to do anything but keep digging. Then again, what the hell else am I going to do? I'm a bloody English major. I can write. If I didn't need this ****ing certification to get my foot in the door, I could do networking stuff. That's it. I can't keep going as a substitute teacher forever, all the traditional good places to earn your bread writing (e.g., journalism) are closing down and dying off, and I've never had any luck finding even secretary jobs out here. I can't even get an opening to show employers I'm smart and capable.

TLDR: Elok feels trapped.

[giblets]

What is so difficult about this test? Just out of curiosity I'd like to see some sample questions.

[Ben Kenobi]

Then again, what the hell else am I going to do? I'm a bloody English major. I can write. If I didn't need this ****ing certification to get my foot in the door, I could do networking stuff. That's it. I can't keep going as a substitute teacher forever, all the traditional good places to earn your bread writing (e.g., journalism) are closing down and dying off, and I've never had any luck finding even secretary jobs out here. I can't even get an opening to show employers I'm smart and capable.

It sounds to me like the reason you are failing is because you aren't studying properly. There's a difference between studying for technical things and studying for things like English exams. What works for one will not work for the other.

You're very close to passing, so that seems like the problem is in the study habits not in your ability to understand the material. You can do the work just fine, but it's the exam that's tripping you up. What I would do is this. Do you have any practice exams to work off of? How are you scoring for them. Cramming 2 days before the test will not work, and you will fail. You need to do practice exams, work through them until you are confident you can pass.

the questions are so obscure, petty and arbitrary

This is loser attitude. Are you going to let this obviously bourgeosie gatekeeper kick your ass?

I don't want to give up--I've invested so much in this--but I'm also aware that that's the logic used by gamblers who go bust, that they're too far in the hole to do anything but keep digging

You're failing by a close margin. This is just closing the deal, not a sunk cost fallacy. Delivering, performance and preparation issue, not one with incapable talent or ability.

Then again, what the hell else am I going to do? I'm a bloody English major.

Better question. What can't you do?

Advice - take a breather. Don't study this at all for awhile. Find someone who's taken the exams and passed, and talk to them to see if you can't get any advice from them. Put it out there that you failed and that you want to do it right and succeed.

[giblets]

Whatever Ben wrote is probably dumb.

[Elok]

I can't really do that; they're absolutely draconian about that stuff. But, for example, the curriculum includes, conservatively, a hundred and fifty separate commands to be used in Cisco IOS, some of them to do very obscure things you wouldn't frequently need. I know all the commonly used ones to the point where I could do them in my sleep. But today I had a question asking something about how to display all currently active Telnet sessions. I'm guessing I read about that at some point, but I couldn't tell you where. I had to guess, and I may have guessed wrong but I won't know because their feedback is vague to the point of uselessness. The hell of it is, that does not reflect my actual ability to do the job. IOS has a very robust in-line help function where you can type the beginning of any command, hit "?" and get a list of all commands beginning that way. It's purely rote memorization for rote memorization's sake, but the sheer volume of stuff to memorize makes memorization of the whole thing deeply impractical.

There are also "simlets," little mocked-up networks with problems you have to solve or data you have to dig out. I had a simlet last week that was apparently insoluble (switched network, console access to one switch, telnet apparently disabled, and it wanted data about the other switches), and a very similar situation was presented this week. I still haven't the slightest idea how the hell I was supposed to solve that. There was another one where you had to actually fix the network; I spotted the apparent problem, but the command that would have fixed it was specifically disabled. Maybe if I'd had time to sit down, pore over all the configs and find the error I could have fixed it the way they wanted me to do it, but there's a strict ninety-minute time limit so I had to give it up or risk not having time to finish the rest of the test. Oh yeah, that's another thing--you can't skip a question and come back, it's do it now or give it up for a zero.

I could bang on like this for a while, but I'll spare you unless you really want the details. I feel like maybe I'm not cut out for this, and wondering if I'm just despondent because I failed twice or if that's actually an accurate assessment of the situation. I mean, I like the concepts, I really admire the ingenuity of the engineers who solved all these problems (STP, NAT, and OSPF are all quite elegant), and when I apply myself I can solve the problems...but I'm not a "tech person." This isn't my world. I was always the lit nerd in the room, and I got ahead by having very strong general intelligence that I jury-rigged into working in an unaccustomed sphere. Don't know if that makes any sense.

[Ben Kenobi]

I was always the lit nerd in the room, and I got ahead by having very strong general intelligence that I jury-rigged into working in an unaccustomed sphere. Don't know if that makes any sense.

So stop jury-rigging.

I had a simlet last week that was apparently insoluble (switched network, console access to one switch, telnet apparently disabled, and it wanted data about the other switches), and a very similar situation was presented this week. I still haven't the slightest idea how the hell I was supposed to solve that.

So your preparation identified an issue prior to the exam, which you brushed off. Then the exam itself punished this. Ok. So figure out what the answer to this question is, someone here hopefully knows. If I'm correct, this should be just enough to pass. But you don't want to leave it to chance. You want to crush this exam and make it whimper.

Maybe if I'd had time to sit down, pore over all the configs and find the error I could have fixed it the way they wanted me to do it, but there's a strict ninety-minute time limit so I had to give it up or risk not having time to finish the rest of the test.

Yes, this test specifically punishes skills that you've already learned. You need to put yourself, (if you have practice tests), on a strict timer. After x amount of time, move on. Keep track of how much time you are taking for the test, and be ruthless. You'll score better in the end and you need to be confident to tell the question to **** off and die, and move on.

[regexcellent]

Shells like Cisco IOS are basically a language and you should think about it the same way. IIRC the command you're looking for is show sessions. You know it's going to be "show" because that's the command for listing just about anything in IOS. You can make some educated guesses and use the ? command or tab-complete. If you can guess at the form of the command, that goes a long way in being able to deduce the actual vocabulary of it on the fly.

[Sava]

Whatever Ben wrote is probably dumb.

QFT

I bet he blames a woman.

[Elok]

Shells like Cisco IOS are basically a language and you should think about it the same way. IIRC the command you're looking for is show sessions. You know it's going to be "show" because that's the command for listing just about anything in IOS. You can make some educated guesses and use the ? command or tab-complete. If you can guess at the form of the command, that goes a long way in being able to deduce the actual vocabulary of it on the fly.

Good, I guessed it right. In general, Cisco IOS is consistent and follows a clear pattern. Now I wonder what else I did wrong, because that was one of the ones I thought I got wrong.

BK isn't being totally unhelpful, just doing this drill-sergeant thing I guess he thinks is inspirational, but which is mostly irritating. He did make at least one good suggestion, though (I'd already been planning to do it, but it wasn't dumb): talk with people who've already passed it, see what they say.

[DaShi]

These kinds of tests usually aren't designed to test your skills but to weed out as many applicants as possible. You could be the best Cisco coder they will ever have, but they won't even look at you until you pass the stupid test. They won't be sympathetic because they want people to fail, no matter how qualified they are. Those who do pass are generally "good enough" to consider accepting for such skills.

Networking is often the best way around these systems.

You could evaluate your test taking strategy. Are practice tests available? If so, take them under similar conditions as the real exam and determine what your having the most trouble with. These tests are usually more about how well you can take the test than how much you know.

[Hauldren Collider]

The Cisco IOS shell is fairly straightforward, from what I remember from high school, though to be fair what I remember is not much. It's a lot more predictable than GNU utilities in Linux, for example.

[Ben Kenobi]

BK isn't being totally unhelpful, just doing this drill-sergeant thing I guess he thinks is inspirational, but which is mostly irritating. He did make at least one good suggestion, though (I'd already been planning to do it, but it wasn't dumb): talk with people who've already passed it, see what they say.

I may not know much, but I have tutored people for years. Tests and studying are two things I DO know. How do you think a stupid deaf person who's a complete idiot managed to earn a degree? Good looks? Money?

As for the drill sargeant bs, it's the sandpapery crap that nobody likes doing that's tripping you up. I'm confident your next post will be, "I kicked Cisco's ass and now I'm taking my wife to Europe!"

Good luck, Elok. Hopefully there's some more sys admins folks here. Someone should be able to help you on the content rather than the process.

[DaShi]

You don't know much.

[Ben Kenobi]

You don't know much.

A man's got to know his limitations.

[DaShi]

You still don't know yours. You're far more limited that you believe.